190 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



bis services in that country, was detailed by the Navy Department for 

 two years' work in studying tbe mineralogy and ethnology of this new 

 land. 



XX. Department of Chemistry. 



The work of the chemical laboratory has been carried on in the usual 

 manner, and considerable additions have been made to the fittings of 

 the laboratory. Mr. Frederick W. Taylor, chemist, has on account of 

 illness received five months' leave of absence, and has gone to Colorado. 



Prof. F. W. Clarke, as an officer of the Museum, has, with his assist- 

 ant in the Geological Survey, Dr. T. M. Chatard, been allowed the 

 use of the chemical laboratory for the investigations connected with 

 his official position. Dr. Jerome H. Kidder, U. S. N., of the Fish Com- 

 mission, has been allowed the use of the upper laboratory during the 

 reconstruction of the Smithsonian building. 



XXI, XXIT. Departments of Experimental Physiology and Vivaria. 



No changes have been made in these departments, their conditions 

 being much the same as described in the report for 1882. 



SECTION OF MATERIA MEDICA, DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND INDUSTRIES. 



J. M. Flint, Curator. 



In the establishment of a Museum designe d to illustrate man and 

 his environment it is proper that the materials and methods used for 

 the prevention and cure of disease should have a place. Medicine, 

 like food, clothing, and habitation, has a direct and important relation 

 to the welfare, progress, and longevity of man, and the remedial meas- 

 ures in use by a people may be as indicative of the degree of their in- 

 tellectual development as is the nature of their food, or the character 

 of their dwellings, or their social and religious customs. A collection 

 of medicinal substances, of medical, surgical, and pharmaceutical in- 

 struments and appliances, may not only be instructive to the specialist, 

 physician, pharmacist, or anthropologist, but ought also to possess a 

 general interest for the public, since none may escape the occasion for 

 their use. 



So much in brief explanation of the presence of a materia medica 

 exhibit in the TJ. S. National Museum. 



In the comprehensive scheme of Museum classification which has been 

 devised, a place for such a collection has been provided in the Division : 

 " Ultimate Products and their Utilization." Glass : " Medicine, Surgery, 

 Pharmacology, Hygiene," &c. 



For the objects belonging to this class the general term " materia 

 medica" has been adopted, extending the common definition to include 

 everything, medical or surgical, used in the treatment of disease. 



